Digital Commons Network^™

Performance-Based Assessment Of Asphalt Overlay Cracking With Laboratory And Field Data, Meisam Khorshidi

Doctoral Dissertations

Efficient and effective rehabilitation of existing pavements is a continuing priority for transportation agencies seeking to maintain safe, reliable, and cost-effective networks. Asphalt overlays are widely used to restore ride quality and extend service life of both asphalt and concrete pavements; however, their long-term performance is often limited by thermal and reflective cracking. These distresses accelerate moisture infiltration, increase maintenance demand, and shorten overlay life, especially in cold-climate regions. Ensuring that overlay designs adequately account for structural configuration, traffic, climate, subgrade conditions, and mixture-level fracture resistance is therefore critical to avoid premature failure and excessive life-cycle costs.This dissertation advances performance-based …

How Presentation Shapes Multisensory Category Learning, Hooman Main Amiri

Master's Theses and Capstones

Category learning allows people to group complex sensory input into categories, helping them generalize knowledge from familiar exemplars to novel stimuli. In everyday life, categories are often learned from more than one sense, yet most prior work on category learning has focused on learning in a single sensory modality. Here, we asked whether the way category information is presented across modalities, simultaneously or separately, shapes multisensory category learning in adults. In Experiment 1, participants learned the categories with either simultaneous or separate presentation of auditory and visual information and then completed a test phase to assess not only whether they …

Characterizing Effects Of Basal Ganglia Dysfunction On Implicit-Statistical Learning: Evidence From Parkinson's Disease, Alyson Rose Brown

Master's Theses and Capstones

This study investigated implicit statistical learning (ISL) ability in individuals with Parkinson’sdisease (PD) to further characterize the influence of the basal ganglia degeneration on ISL. The first research aim looked to investigate ISL ability in individuals with PD in comparison to age- matched healthy controls. Additionally, the relationship between cognitive measures and ISL task performance was investigated to identify potential interactions between ISL and aspects of cognition considered to be necessary for it. In this study four participants with PD were administered an auditory ISL experimental task. In an exposure phase, participants were familiarized with a target grammar pattern. Then …

Have You Seen This? Impact Of Concussion And Memory On Narrative Retells Of Silent Animated Films, Lauren Kate Harrington

Master's Theses and Capstones

AbstractBackground: Concussions are mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) that are often associated with short- and long-term cognitive impacts. Two specific cognitive skills people with concussion exhibit deficits in are working memory- the ability to retain and manipulate newly presented information- and episodic memory- memory of scenes that have occurred, similar to recalling a television episode. Previous studies have revealed mixed results in differences of narrative length between speakers with and without concussion; however, more information is needed on the relationship between memory and narrative production in speakers with concussion. Aims: This study compares the total number of utterances and mean …

Wilderness Character Qualities And Visitor Typologies: Advancing Adaptive Visitor Use Management In Parks And Protected Areas, Ethan James O'Leary

Master's Theses and Capstones

Wilderness areas are managed to provide opportunities for solitude, primitive recreation, and the preservation of Wilderness Character Qualities (WCQs), yet visitor experiences within these landscapes are shaped by perceptions of crowding, environmental impacts, management conditions, and more. As visitation to protected areas increases, understanding how visitors perceive and respond to wilderness conditions is critical for sustaining experience quality and informing management. Despite advances in operationalizing WCQs as perceptual and motivational constructs, few studies have embedded WCQ perceptions within a visitor typology framework capable of capturing heterogeneity across wilderness contexts. This gap limits the ability to translate WCQ perceptions into targeted …

Addressing The Functional Anonymity Of The Post Thaw Microbiome: How Redox And Temperature Conditions Dictate Microbial Community Composition After Permafrost Thaw, Nathan Patrick Alexander

Master's Theses and Capstones

Permafrost is perennially frozen soil that underlays 11% of Earth’s total surface and stores 33%of the planet’s global soil carbon stocks in the form of soil organic matter. Rising global temperatures are causing permafrost to thaw. Permafrost thaw often creates a heterogeneous patchwork of redox conditions on the landscape, resulting in a diversity of microbial metabolisms using alternate terminal electron acceptors. In aerobic respiration, microbes use oxygen as TEAs and soil organic matter as an electron donor; anaerobic respiration is carried out when microbes use alternate electron acceptors, such as NO3-, Fe3+, SO42-, and CO2. Understanding microbial responses to changing …

Vegetation Mediates Methane Ebullition Across Temporal Scales In A Temperate Peatland: A 10-Year Dataset, Apryl L. Perry

Master's Theses and Capstones

Wetlands are the largest and most variable natural source of methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere, contributing an estimated 161 Tg CH₄ yr-1 globally. Climate and anthropogenic changes can alter hydrology, geochemistry, and vegetation, generating substantial variability in CH₄ emissions across landscapes. Long-term measurements of CH₄ fluxes, inclusive of all transport pathways (ebullition, plant transport and diffusion), are rare but essential for understanding wetland contributions to the global carbon cycle. We present a decadal dataset of ebullitive CH₄ emissions from a temperate peatland, examining variation among vegetation types and relationships with environmental drivers. We found that ebullitive CH₄ fluxes were highest …

Masthead, Editorial Board

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Is Hipaa Still Protecting Your Medical Data? An Analysis Of Deidentification As A Security Measure In The Age Of Ai., Jessica Novak

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly altering the landscape of many industries, and for some, faster than the law can necessarily keep up, leaving those industries unprotected from AI-related concerns. For the healthcare industry in particular, the integration of AI presents large-scale data privacy concerns. The current law protecting patient data privacy, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), is potentially already outdated and inadequate; concerns about HIPAA’s efficacy have long-existed and AI’s integration has only solidified this concern. It is potentially inadequate because of a provision within the law itself-deidentification. HIPAA allows healthcare providers to remove identifying information from a …

"Smart" Cities And Due Care With Emerging Technologies, Anthony J. Luppino

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

The rapid development of increasingly powerful technologies presents new opportunities to produce public benefits, as exemplified by the “Smart Cities” movement. Conversely, emerging technologies pose significant threats to public safety and individual rights, as evidenced by high-profile cyberattacks and other technology-related incidents, and in warnings issued by some Artificial Intelligence experts. This article examines the responsibilities of local governments in the United States as users of technology and as regulators of uses by other actors—arguing that they have a duty of care, traceable to the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, to act diligently in that dual role whether or not …

Storm Clouds, Disheveled Storks, And Dangerous Animals: The Impact Of Concussion On Narrative Production Of A Silent Animated Video, Aislyn Grace O'Connell

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is the most prevalent category of brain injury. Despite its classification as a mild injury, concussion can result in persistent symptoms that impact one’s ability to participate in everyday life. Among the challenges associated with concussion, discourse production (e.g., storytelling) has gained attention as a potential area of subtle impairment in people who have experienced a concussion, as it places high cognitive demands on the individual. Disruptions in cognitive processes may alter how individuals organize, interpret, and convey information in social contexts. However, discourse deficits are typically more apparent in severe TBI, …

Conserved Spatial Proximity And Immune-Linked Evolution Of Lncrnas From Protein-Coding Genes In Vertebrates, Sahar Jamialahmadi

Master's Theses and Capstones

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widespread components of vertebrate genomes, yet theevolutionary principles governing their genomic positioning, origin, and functional associations remain incompletely understood. Here, we performed a comparative genomic analysis across 96 vertebrate species to investigate the spatial relationship between lncRNAs and protein-coding genes, their evolutionary trajectories within gene families, and their functional and genomic contexts.

We show that lncRNAs are consistently positioned in close proximity to protein-codinggenes across vertebrates, with distance distributions significantly deviating from random genomic placement in all species examined. Despite this non-random organization, genome-wide lncRNA–mRNA distance distributions were highly conserved across species. Ancestral state reconstruction …

Testing Of Great Bay Oysters For Two Protozoan Pathogens - 2025, Renee Zobel, Robert Atwood

PREP Reports & Publications

No abstract provided.

Review: How The Nossrat Yassini Festival Uplifts The Human Spirit Of Poetry, Devon Mcavoy

Digital Edition

No abstract provided.

Simple Guide To Using Generative Artificial Intelligence Writing Tools In Research & Scholarship At Unh, Julie Simpson, Patricia Condon, Bonnie Brown, William C. Clyde, James J. Connell, Ramonda Kindle, Jennifer Miksis-Olds, Christopher Neefus, Jennifer O’Brien, Theresa Oehmke, Shantel Palacio, Allyson Ryder, Nathan A. Schwadron, John E. Sparrow, Xueting Sun, Engin Taze, May-Win Thein, Anita R. Tucker, Karen T. Van Gundy, James Wible

Integrity in Research and Scholarship

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have existed for years, the recent arrival of widespread generative AI writing tools such as ChatGPT has provoked varied reactions in the scholarly community worldwide. Undoubtedly easy access to such tools may help to level the scholarly playing field for certain groups, particularly those with limited writing skills or proficiency with English as the primary language for written and oral communication of research and scholarship. There are, however, concerns about these tools, including, but not limited to, the accuracy, consistency, and bias of the information generated, appropriate acknowledgement of source material, and the tools’ lack …

What's The Scoop On Life In New Hampshire? Youth Perspectives On New Hampshire As A Place To Live, Learn, And Work After High School, Elliot Ng, Jayson Seaman, Cindy L. Hartman, Andrew D. Coppens, Kate Moscouver, Hannah Falcone

Carsey Publications

To support its long-term economic vitality, New Hampshire must cultivate and retain its young talent. This brief analyzes the perspectives of New Hampshire youth and proposes actionable strategies that encourage them to build their futures in the state. While a majority of New Hampshire youth leave the state after high school, retention opportunities lie in leveraging what youth already love about the Granite State: Its natural environment, abundant outdoor amenities, and safe communities. By leveraging these assets and complementary policies such as expanding career-connected learning, promoting the abundance of in-state opportunities, and developing centralized social spaces, New Hampshire can create …

Unh Research Finds Political Beliefs Shape Trust In Smart Technologies, Aaron Sanborn

UNH Today Archive

No abstract provided.

Worlds Within A City: How Duke University’S Setting Constructs Institutional Identity, Comeh Emuobor

Comm-entary

Comeh is a junior communication major from Durham, North Carolina. He is also a guard on the UNH Basketball team.

his piece explores how Duke university’s campus setting shapes its public image and institutional identity. It explains how the university’s landscaping, architecture, Chapel, interior and exterior spaces, and controlled access create an atmosphere of prestige, tradition, exclusivity, and academic authority. Furthermore, this essay shows how Duke’s physical environment separates it from the surrounding city and functions as a powerful public relations tool.

A Brief Analysis Of Setting, Rebecca Colby

Comm-entary

Rebecca Colby is a sophomore Communication student. She is originally from Littleton, NH, a small town nestled above the White Mountains. Rebecca is a staff writer and editor for The New Hampshire student newspaper. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and birding.

This piece examines how the setting of North Country climbing center reflects the organizations casual, welcoming, and community focused identity. It describes the Jim’s hidden location, flexible layout, movable seating, climbing spaces, and relaxed atmosphere as parts of the space they encourage visitors to stay, connect, and climb with one another. This essay shows …

“I Hope This Letter Finds You Well,”: The Good Life Through Letters 1940s-1980s, Taylor Koet

Comm-entary

Taylor is majoring in History and Law 3+3 major with a double major in Philosophy, from Long Beach, CA. She loves to bake and try new coffee and boba spots.

This piece explores the importance of stationery and letter writing in maintaining family connection across distance and time. This essay uses the Sinclair family papers which show how letters from Clayton Sinclair junior and Clayton the third preserved relationships, personal growth, and created a tangible record of their family history. Ultimately this piece argues that even as technology has changed, handwritten letters represent effort, emotion, and a main connection as …

An Analysis Of Setting –State Theatre At Thompson’S Point, Ruby Prentiss

Comm-entary

Ruby Prentiss is a Sophomore History and Communication student from Falmouth, Maine who is Editor in Chief of Comm-entary. She also is a member of the University’s track and field team as a thrower. In her free time, Ruby enjoys fly fishing, spending time outdoors, and reading.

This piece analyzes Thompson’s point in Portland, Maine to be a meaningful community shaped by music, public gathering, and local history. It explains how the venues physical design, restored pavilion, local food trucks, waterfront location, affordable concerts, and free seasonal events reflect the value of the State Theater and the broader main community. …

Do We Even Know What ‘Even’ Does? A Ca Investigation, Emily Johnson

Comm-entary

Emily is a Senior communication major with a Business Administration minor. She is originally from Merrimack, NH, and is planning on working in PR or something similar when she graduates in May.

What does “even” do in conversation? This study shows that when used mid-turn, “even” functions as a systematic device for intensifying stance. Analyzing naturally occurring interactions, I demonstrate how speakers use “even” to upgrade assessments, noticings, and complaints, making them more extreme or noteworthy. Recipients consistently orient to this intensification through agreement, accounts, or escalation. Even when the upgrade is left incomplete, others step in to realize it, …

Encouraging Fitness For Women In United Kingdom- How This Girl Can Organization Tackled The Gender Activity Gap, Ruby Prentiss

Comm-entary

Ruby Prentiss is a Sophomore History and Communication student from Falmouth, Maine who is Editor in Chief of Comm-entary. She also is a member of the University’s track and field team as a thrower. In her free time, Ruby enjoys fly fishing, spending time outdoors, and reading.

This paper offers and analysis of the Sport England public relations campaign entitled This Girl Can, detailing the PR strategy of the organization and campaign from the initial market research to the post-campaign efficacy analysis. This Girl Can is examined using historical and cultural scholarly sources with a critical communication lens to prove …

Language Deprivation In Deaf Children, Kaleb Holske

Comm-entary

Kaleb is an American Sign Language English Interpreter with a double major in Linguistics, from Chester, NH. He’s also a professional balloon twister!

This piece examines how language deprivation affects deaf children when they don’t necessarily receive early access to natural language, especially during the most critical developmental years. It further explains how the medical model of deafness, reliance on cochlear implants or hearing aids, schooling, and limited sign language access can negatively impact the emotional, social, and academic growth of these children. This piece argues that early access to sign language and deaf centered support is essential for preventing …

Conventions Of Photography As Means Of Social And Technological Critiques, Ava Lannery

Comm-entary

Ava is a Communication major with a specification in Business Applications. She’s an Irish dual citizen from Newton, MA.

This piece looks  at how photography can be used as a form of Social and technological critique. Through Mark Peterson’s ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation and Jack Latham’s Beggars Honey, this essay argues that photographers can manipulate composition, technology to create deeper meanings about power, style, social stage agency, immigration enforcement, and modern digital manipulation. Ultimately, this writing piece shows how photography depends on audience context and literacy to be fully understood. 

How The Word ‘Fucking’ Constructs Emotional Stance In Conversation, Madeline Riechers

Comm-entary

Madeline Riechers is a Communication major at UNH set to graduate in 2026. She is originally from Dalton, Massachusetts, and plans to continue her education in Language and Social Interaction after graduating from UNH. She is a part of UNH GIVE, and is an editor at the Comm-entary!

This piece uses conversation analysis concepts to examine what the word ‘fucking’ does in everyday conversation and how it conveys the emotions and stance of the participants. It examines 4 real-life cases of ‘fucking’ being used, demonstrating how it changes the meaning of the utterance and therefore the course of the conversation.

Ski Industry Professionals In New Hampshire Are Worried About Climate Change, Jacklyn Tracy, Elizabeth Burakowski

Carsey Publications

In this brief, authors Jacklyn Tracy and Elizabeth Burakowski report the results of an online survey conducted in June 2025 with New Hampshire ski industry professionals to gain insight into how they perceive climate change. Understanding the perspectives on climate change is an important first step in working to preserve a vital industry to the state as temperatures rise and winters shorten. The results of the survey revealed that the majority of New Hampshire ski industry professionals are concerned about the effects of global warming on the ski industry in the state and believe more should be done to address …

603 Challenge '26: Support Student Journalism, The New Hampshire

Digital Edition

No abstract provided.

Trust: The Invisible Force Behind Effective Leadership During Times Of Change, Lindsay Atoro

M.S. in Leadership

Workplace change is constant, yet most change management models focus on logistical, financial, and operational factors, overlooking the human aspects. Strategies to support employees often neglect the critical role of trust in effectiveness and success. To more deeply explore the role of trust, this study combined a comprehensive literature review with leader interviews to compare theoretical findings with real-world practices. Results revealed that while leaders acknowledged the importance of trust in leading teams through change, fewer than half explicitly identified it without prompting. Trust was consistently referenced, though often implicitly, reflecting a pattern in the literature where trust was acknowledged …

Calibrating Self-Awareness: Constructive Feedback As A Foundation For Leadership Effectiveness, Kelly Schwindt Calhoun

M.S. in Leadership

No abstract provided.